Japan’s Hibino Corporation has made a substantial investment in a suite of DiGiCo digital mixing systems, including four flagship SD7 and two SD10 consoles. While the actual sale price was not disclosed, DiGiCo told PSNEurope that the total list price for the items was in excess of £1m.

Hibino works with many of Japan’s best-known musicians and the new consoles are destined for use on large-scale concerts with audiences in excess of 50,000. The new desks boost the 49-year-old company’s inventory to six SD7s, four SD10s and ten SD8s.

“Of course, the most important reason for investing in DiGiCo consoles is because of their high quality and usability,” says Hibino’s managing director, Ryoichi Hashimoto. “A significant amount of DiGiCo consoles are being used all over the world and have achieved the trust of many engineers. Their high reliability is another big reason why we keep choosing DiGiCo, along with the fact that we have trust in DiGiCo and its tech support team.”

“By using DiGiCo consoles, we know we’re giving our clients the very best available,” Hashimoto adds. “And the combination of SD7s, SD10s and SD8s means that we are able to cater for any size of show and budget.”

Five years after an expansion drive supported by Matrix Equity Partners, DiGiCo has initiated the next stage of its development by securing secondary investment of nearly £50 million from ISIS Equity Partners.

Known up until now for making a major impact on the live sound market, DiGiCo has made its first push into broadcast, with the release of two new desks, the SD-10B and SD7-B. Mel Lambert was at NAB to digest the story.

Two pro-audio mainstays - DiGiCo and Prism Sound/SADiE parent company Prism Media Products - have been named as recipients of the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category.